0:00
Asalaamu alaikum everybody welcome to the biggest mosque in the whole of Turkey I'm so happy to be
0:10
back the lighting right now is beautiful it's my second time here and I'll show you a bit more today
0:15
today I'm joined by Ellie. Asalaamu alaikum. Ellie came to Turkey two weeks ago right? Yeah two weeks
0:22
two weeks ago and she's here for three months so today we're going to be exploring the biggest mosque
0:27
in turkey she hasn't been here before so i'm excited to show around and yeah i'm going to ask
0:32
her a couple of questions as well because i want to show you guys and talk to you more about what
0:36
it's like to be a new muslim especially from england so let's explore okay so ellie is a new
0:43
muslim did you just want to explain how long ago you reverted yeah so i did my shahada six weeks
0:50
ago actually exactly today on a sunday so exciting yes this year has been a complete blessing to me
0:56
really yeah exactly for me too uh i think we both followed a pretty similar journey right
1:00
you're really similar actually and now you've come to turkey right exactly for me being a new muslim
1:06
in a muslim majority country was really important for me of course i love the adan and i really just
1:12
wanted to be able to hear that every day um so i feel very lucky that i was able to come here
1:17
and so far i've had a really good experience here being muslim i think it's a very open country it's
1:24
a very easy country to be a Muslim in in terms of praying there's always a women's section at the
1:30
back so for me I feel very like it's a very inclusive atmosphere so yeah I'm really enjoying
1:35
it here yeah exactly I think same for me as well coming from England that is where I live especially
1:41
there is no Azan there's no majority Muslim presence I guess is the right word to say it
1:47
and I felt kind of very distant from learning and my faith but coming to Turkey really allowed me to explore that and come to pray and just be surrounded with like people I think is so important and it really strengthened
2:02
my faith and yeah we get to be surrounded by things like this which is incredible
2:19
so we're just walking around the mosque now and it's absolutely stunning the sun is setting so
2:35
the light as you can see is incredible for me reverting to islam and making this decision was
2:40
the best decision of my life how has this decision impacted you and changed your life
2:45
I feel like I just feel a lot more peaceful these days
2:50
I feel like I've kind of always had this belief that, you know, things happen for a reason
2:55
and there's like a plan in life, but now I just feel like I believe that so much more
3:00
and I have like a true faith in that. Yeah, I also feel that like now I have like friends all around the world that are Muslims
3:07
that I can connect with. And for me, like the community of Islam was actually really important
3:11
and it was also something that really drew me to islam like seeing it in like saudi and pakistan
3:16
so yeah i feel very very blessed now to be like part of the muslim family yeah that's the same as
3:23
me having and knowing you have uh what two billion brothers and sisters around the world to just be
3:29
with you on this journey it's just amazing yeah yeah yeah we're very very lucky and yeah i feel
3:35
like it's been such a good decision for me but i also feel like at the same time like our life what my talking for myself it hasn't changed a lot either it's the same
3:43
as me I haven completely changed my life I feel like a lot of the things that I was doing before and did believe before are very similar now And for me that was really important because I didn want to become a whole new person when I became a Muslim
3:57
I just wanted to be Ellie who is now a Muslim. I didn't want it to be like a completely new people to my family
4:02
Same as me, exactly the same. I had the beliefs before. I reverted. It was just actually making that decision to revert
4:08
My life didn't really change. It's just putting the prayers into practice and putting that into your daily routine
4:12
Yeah, I think that's the only thing that's Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, I know it's been yes, I say good as well. Yeah, it's a blessing
4:19
Okay, it's half an hour before Maghreb and the Sun is absolutely beautiful
4:23
I'm gonna send the drone up so you can actually have a look at the whole the whole surrounding area the sky line is absolutely stunning and
4:31
Yeah, I'll send you up to the drone in three two one Thank you
5:12
Thank you Thank you okay we just finished praying this place once the sun goes down it absolutely stunning
5:59
it's so amazing isn't it it is so amazing this light is like incredible we've got everything
6:34
so so how was it for you I have absolutely loved it it's so beautiful I'm so glad we
7:02
came up here and especially at this time of day and yeah mashallah beautiful beautiful stunning
7:08
isn't it yeah yeah yeah so nice and the prayer was really good
7:15
so for me and ellie thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed and we'll see you
7:20
in the next video i will link all of ellie's channel details instagram all down below so
7:24
you can go check her out her journey that she's on right now is absolutely incredible so go and check
